Natural Gas in Our Daily Lives

Natural gas touches nearly every aspect of our lives every single day. It powers our homes and businesses with electricity. It heats and cools them, too. Natural gas fuels many of our municipal transportation fleets and the trucks that deliver goods to market. It provides the raw material needed to manufacture the goods we consume, and the fertilizer farmers use to grow the food we eat.

From laundry detergent and water bottles to the insulation in our homes and pretty much every polymer and plastic in between, natural gas is a key ingredient in virtually every product we use on a daily basis. In short, we all depend on natural gas to make every aspect of our lives possible and to support every sector of our economy.

Clean and affordable natural gas generates more than 30 percent of the electricity in the U.S. That not only lowers electricity costs for consumers and businesses, but it’s also good news for the environment. Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, and it produces roughly half as much carbon dioxide and an even smaller fraction of other emission generated by coal. That’s why electric utilities across the country are rapidly switching from coal to natural gas as a way to combat climate change and reduce pollution.

Home Heating

Natural gas currently heats about one in four homes in the U.S., but that number is growing rapidly as more homeowners and developers realize that natural gas costs significantly less than electric heating. The annual cost of heating your home with natural gas can be less than half the cost of electric heating, which can amount to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in savings each year for most homeowners.

Transportation

Municipalities across the country are converting their transportation fleets to clean-burning natural gas – both because of the significant cost-savings, as well as the dramatically lower emissions. Natural gas vehicles produce 20 to 30 percent fewer carbon emissions than gasoline vehicles, and anywhere from 50 to 95 percent fewer emissions of other common air pollutants. That’s one more way the natural gas industry is stepping up in a major way to dramatically improve air quality in cities and towns across the U.S.

Manufacturing

Thanks to the discovery of vast new supplies of domestic natural gas, the U.S. is now in the midst of a major resurgence of manufacturing. After decades of decline and millions of jobs lost overseas, manufacturers are finally coming back to the U.S. because of clean-burning, low-cost natural gas. But in order for Ohio, Michigan and other markets in the U.S. Midwest to take advantage of this economic resurgence, the region needs updated natural gas infrastructure to connect manufacturers to the abundant supply of gas coming out of eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Products

While many consumers may not realize it, most of the products we use on a daily basis are derived from natural gas. From laundry detergent and water bottles to the insulation in our homes and pretty much every polymer and plastic in between, natural gas is a key ingredient in most of the products that make our lives as comfortable and convenient as they are.

Clean and affordable natural gas generates more than 30 percent of the electricity in the U.S. That not only lowers electricity costs for consumers and businesses, but it’s also good news for the environment. Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, and it produces roughly half as much carbon dioxide and an even smaller fraction of other emission generated by coal. That’s why electric utilities across the country are rapidly switching from coal to natural gas as a way to combat climate change and reduce pollution.

Natural gas currently heats about one in four homes in the U.S., but that number is growing rapidly as more homeowners and developers realize that natural gas costs significantly less than electric heating. The annual cost of heating your home with natural gas can be less than half the cost of electric heating, which can amount to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in savings each year for most homeowners.

Municipalities across the country are converting their transportation fleets to clean-burning natural gas – both because of the significant cost-savings, as well as the dramatically lower emissions. Natural gas vehicles produce 20 to 30 percent fewer carbon emissions than gasoline vehicles, and anywhere from 50 to 95 percent fewer emissions of other common air pollutants. That’s one more way the natural gas industry is stepping up in a major way to dramatically improve air quality in cities and towns across the U.S.

Thanks to the discovery of vast new supplies of domestic natural gas, the U.S. is now in the midst of a major resurgence of manufacturing. After decades of decline and millions of jobs lost overseas, manufacturers are finally coming back to the U.S. because of clean-burning, low-cost natural gas. But in order for Ohio, Michigan and other markets in the U.S. Midwest to take advantage of this economic resurgence, the region needs updated natural gas infrastructure to connect manufacturers to the abundant supply of gas coming out of eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania.

While many consumers may not realize it, most of the products we use on a daily basis are derived from natural gas. From laundry detergent and water bottles to the insulation in our homes and pretty much every polymer and plastic in between, natural gas is a key ingredient in most of the products that make our lives as comfortable and convenient as they are.

Paint

Tires

Detergent

Footwear

Sweaters

Electronics

Bottles

Toys

Lenses

Diapers

Why NEXUS? The Need for Expanded Natural Gas Infrastructure

Just like the crops on our farms and the products in our factories, natural gas has to be delivered from where it is produced to the people and communities that use it every single day. And, natural gas pipelines are the safest and most efficient way to transport natural gas from where it is produced to where it is consumed.

More than 300,000 miles of pipeline reliably bring clean-burning natural gas to our homes, businesses and factories every day. But our demand for natural gas is growing. Because of its environmental benefits, we’re using it to fuel our power plants more than ever before, and municipalities across the country are using it to fuel their transportation fleets. And as our population grows, our society will continue to consume more natural gas – for electricity, home heating, industry and transportation.

The challenge we face is that the pipeline infrastructure in many regions of the country – including Ohio and Michigan – is not equipped to meet this growing demand. That’s why we’re building the NEXUS project. This pipeline is part of the infrastructure necessary to deliver clean-burning natural gas directly to consumers across the region for cleaner electricity, more affordable home heating and new industry.